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20100215

Paraplegic Vaughan Blignaut 27 was planning to go to a movie on Friday-night with his brothers Justin and Grant when two ‘neatly dressed’ hijackers plucked out a rifle and screamed ‘go go go”- targetting Justin’s Audi A3 with Justin and his wheelchair already inside.

The disabled young Afrikaner’s brother Justin pleaded with the men not to take his brother – at which point Vaughan was grabbed roughly by the neck and tossed with heavy hand to the ground before they chased off with the Audi.

Justin said he’d pulled the car up in the driveway so that they could load Vaughan into the van. Just after he was loaded into his seat he saw the two men walking towards him from the corner of an eye – in broad daylight – pluck out a rifle and rush towards the Audi. “They were very professional and it clearly wasn’t the first time that they’d done this” he said. Vaughan said when one of the men got into the driver’s seat he tried to explain that he was disabled and couldn’t climb out – but the man just ignored him. Justin said he was terrified that the hijackers would drive off with his brother and he repeatedly begged them not to do so. Just before they drove off the rifleman grabbed Vaughan by the neck and tossed him out. Vaughan is frail and he recently broke an upper leg – and feared that he would get hurt again in the fall. As it was the car-door hit his head but there were no broken bones. Justin said it was the ‘nonchalance’ of the hijackers which angered him the most. “they didn’t even chase off – they merely drove off very calmly and even turned on the indicators showing they were going to make a turn. Looking into the business end of a rifle barrel remains an utterly traumatic experience. I am just happy that my brother is OK’ he said. Their dad Danny said the local security company and cops showed up very quickly – and they were already contacted about attending a identity parade of men captured in other local crimes. Meanwhile a neighbour gave Vaughan a wheelchair to use until his new one arrives. The official SAPS spokesman Captain Alfred Nakana who is supposedly the only one who can comment on crimes to the news media in the province was unavailable writes Beeld. The story does not say why Vaughan is disabled. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/d68b152ea7634982af3850418b53295e/15-02-2010-10-43/Kapers_gooi_verlamde_neer

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Distraught Benoni resident José Vieira was photographed on Sunday placing flowers at the Ninth Avenue Northmead home of the unarmed, elderly Afrikaans couple who were brutally battered by a group of black men on Friday-night. 75-year-old Mrs Alice Botha was bludgeoned to death and Mr Jack Botha – also 75 - now is in critical condition at the Union Hospital in Alberton.

Mr Vieira is a friend of the couple’s daughter Antoinette Jannecke and the two had come across the shocking scene when they returned from a movie at around 11pm. The friend had still briefly grappled with an unknown man in the garden - who had come strolling casually from a room of the murder-scene as if he owned the place. However Vieira let the ‘unresisting’ stranger go when he heard Alice screaming inside: she’d just discovered the body of her mother in the hallway: the old Afrikaans lady’s head was bashed in.

The picture of the flowers at the gate was taken by Bongiwe Gumede of Beeld newspaper – with journalists René-Jean van den Berg and Wolfram Zwecker reporting on February 15 2010 that the murderers of Mrs Alice Botha were still at large.

SAPS constable Ron Nchali told Beeld that “an unknown number of people attacked the couple inside their home.” He didn’t say anything at all about a police unit trying to hunt them down either. And his colleague constable Godin Nyathi also said that they weren’t sure whether anything was stolen as yet: a plastic bag with cellphones and jewellery was picked up in the garden...

“The stranger behaved as if he had every right to be inside the house…

Vieira said when they arrived at 11pm the garage door was open and there was blood on the door knob. “It was all so very strange. Antoinette was first into the house and found her father injured on the floor of the kitchen. A strange man then came walking from one of the rooms and strolled through the kitchen and exited the back door – acting ‘as if he had the fullest right to be inside’ he said. Vieira grabbed the guy outside and briefly grappled with him in the dark backyard in an attempt to arrest him – but then Vieira got distracted by Antoinette – “who started screaming hysterically’ he said. “I then realised that she was alone in the house. I ran inside and the man got away.’ He said the man had not put up any defence. When he joined his deeply traumatised friend he saw the bludgeoned body of his friend’s mother in the hallway. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/cf20554f4e1a4c6888c4c6d53e1acb52/15-02-2010-11-37/Bejaarde_vrou_in_Benoni_vermoor,_man_beseer

Thousands of letters to Zuma protesting against the out-of-control crime epidemic will be delivered to the front steps of the South African parliament early on Monday-morning – just before pres. Jacob Zuma’s reply to his earlier state-of-the nation speech in parliament last week. Solidarity trade union deputy-leader Dirk Hermann said they had immediately launched an anti-crime campaign after Zuma’s earlier speech to ‘emphasize the serious nature of crime in the country.” He points out that “Zuma’s most important speech to date had failed to provide any concrete plans to combat South Africa’s largest problem – namely crime”

“Only 120 words (two percent) of his entire one-hour state-of-the-nation address dealt with the crime issue plaguing the nation. “Solidarity wants many thousands of South Africans to stand up together and make a fist against crime. We want to send a clear message to the government that we won’t rest until “Combating Crime” has become this government’s top priority” he said. People can still send their letters via email to geagtepresident@solidariteit.co.za and these also will be printed and delivered with the more than ten thousand letters they have already received thus far. Beeld newspaper also noted that since 1 January up to February 15 more than 25 people have already been murdered in South Africa. Besides the trade union two political parties – the Democratic Alliance and the Freedom Front Plus -- also lined up to criticise Zuma’s failure to address the seriousness of the crime epidemic. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/b7c12af206724204adaf18adc702e0f4/15-02-2010-12-28/Misdaad_Laat_jou_stem_hoor

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87sdii9TkrU

Six elderly Afrikaners cruelly murdered in Pretoria in six weeks. The latest victims are Theunis and Suzie Venter - found terribly mutilated in their Pretoria home on February 11 2010.

Beeld journalist Hilda Fourie reports that before the gruesome murder of the Venter couple; Dr. Francois Steenkamp (71) a retired cardiologist was also murdered in the Newlands Park retirement community a week earlier – his head was crushed in. On 25 January Mrs Elsa Blignaut was found choked to death two days after her 83rd birthday in her bed in New Muckleneuk; on 13 January Ria van den Bergh (65) was murdered in broad daylight in her home in Hermanstad; on 8 January Mrs Kitty Botha right aged 83; was beaten to death in her Lyttelton Centurion home and her living room was torched; and in November 2008 retired SAPS colonel Piet Swemmer 89, was gruesomely beaten to death with a hammer in his Waterkloof Rift home. The Venter couple’s grandson Hein Engelbrecht (33) came across their bodies just a week after their 59th wedding anniversary. Forensic examinations show that they must have died twelve hours earlier. Mr Venter – who was beaten very badly – was lying on his stomach in the living room. Mrs Venter – who struggled to walk after she’d head a stroke earlier in the year – was found choked to death in the hallway. They were in their eighties and unarmed. Some minor items are missing from the house – the murderers only took a playstation 2 and one DVD – their old VW combi with the number plates KMC 163 GP is missing – probably just taken to escape in. Hein lives with his grandparents on the corner of Louis Trichardt Street and Mortimer Avenue opposite Mayville Primary School. He parked his motorbike on the grass and immediately stormed inside – realising that something was badly wrong: the gate and the security gate barring access to the stoop were wide-open and the Combi was missing from the car-port. The couple’s Boerboel was so badly beaten and kicked that she didn’t move from underneath the kitchen table until the police forensic team had finished its examinations. Granddaughter Yvette Engelbrecht (29) was in tears. She said they didn’t want to go to a retirement home. “My granddad always said they would die in a retirement home “ she said. http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/9c6414212e064fa590f6e9c05075f510/12-02-2010-01-26/6_Weke,_6_moorde

2010-02-12 Alta Snyman of Beeld newspaper reports that only two days after the owner of a slate-quarry had told a Potchefstroom SAPS police superintendent that ‘the police would only pay attention to residents’ worries after something terrible has happened’ -- 54-year-old Ben von Brandis and his wife Gail 50 were attacked in their sleep at their Broekmansfontein farm house in Groot Marico. The couple were asleep at 4am when men broke through their security locks; tore off the gate and stormed in with axes. They threatened to rape Mrs Von Brandis and tried to tear off her clothes – but were unable to.

They then decided to torture the poor woman by dripping heated plastic on her skin and then dragged her to the dining room where the telephone wires were cut off so that they could tie up her hands – and then then tried to smother the woman to death. Meanwhile other men had also been attacking Mr Von Brandis with an axe in the bedroom. Astonishly enough Gail von Brandis then managed to make her escape from the homestead and hid in the garden in the dark. The attackers then tried to open the safe – but couldn’t do that either – and Mr Von Brandis had suffered serious head injuries by then so he couldn’t give them the combination either. Then they tried to escape in the couple’s Mercedes-Benz but this activitated its security system. The attackers then rushed off in the couple’s small Hyundai van and dragged the safe with them and also took a .22 Bruno gun. One of the couple’s sons Barend said the men clearly were familiar with the household as they also wanted to know where his brother Jacques was – they knew he lived on the farm with his parents but the son wasn’t home that night. The deserted Hyundai was found undamaged by a neighbouring farmer at around 7.30 the next morning on the Rosmincol gravel road outside Koster. Mr Von Brandis owns the local quarry and employs many local men residents said. He was transferred from the Zeerust hospital to the Netcare Ferncrest Hospital in Rustenburg with critical head injuries.

Police are useless:

A neighbour Danie Conradie said the adjacent squatter camp is a ‘large source of crime problems’ for the entire regtin. Many of Von Brandis’ quarry-workers live there but ‘outsiders are causing problems’ he said. He estimates that many millions of Rands in losses have already been suffered by surrounding farmers from livestock thefts and robberies. And complaints from ratepayers fall on deaf ears with the local cops said residents.“Sometimes they have the excuse that they don’t have vehicles to come out and investigate crimes with and complainants are not issued with any case numbers ‘said one resident. As it happened on the Tuesday before the attack eleven local farmers had held formal talks with SAPS superintendent Seboco of the Potchefstroom SAPS provincial headquarters about the trouble caused by the illegal squatters on the Von Brandis Farm – including the quarry owner himself.http://www.beeld.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1928/87c4106a8f5f4b0a86f73169c07a2db1/12-02-2010-03-19/Egpaar_met_byl_oorval_kortn%C3%A1_polisie_klagtes_aanhoor_

2010-02-15 Vicus Bürger of Volksblad reports that Mechiel Gertenbach; a seriously-injured clerk; was nearly torn apart by a pack of ferocious dogs which lives at Long Street in Bloemfontein. Gertenbach had go to the property owned by car-repair man Arnold Mohlale to fetch parts for his car. He pushed the car-horn several times but no-one came out. There were no warning signs about the dogs and he went inside the yard – closing the gate behind him when he was attacked by three dogs he described as ‘lions’. A group of men who strolled passed the scene while he was being mauled bashed on the gate with a bag and distracted the dogs shouting at Gertenbach “Nthate get up’. This saved his life – he managed to get away but was very badly injured. He said the good samaritan had by then disappeared but he still wanted to thank him: ‘the man saved my life’. Bleedling profusely and in pain and growing increasingly dizzy he managed to drive to the hospital. He’s scheduled to get skin transplants soon. Meanwhile Mohlale was visited by Volksblad and he showed off a warning sign on the gate – which Gertenbach said wasn’t there when he was attacked. Mohlale said ‘crooks are always trying to still stuff at my yard. Yesterday I saw the blood and realised someone had been there and I went to the police to enquire; ‘ he told Beeld. His wife Girly also said they were ‘terribly sorry’ about what happened to their customer – but police captain Harry Nagel said they will be investigating. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/47036388034741f6a003be742045d4f0/15-02-2010-04-50/Net_genade_dat_hy_leef,_s%C3%AA_man_n%C3%A1_aanval

South Africans have a large array of large dogs which are known for their ferocious fighting skills.

Feb 11 2010 - An unnamed 34-year-old Afrikaans housewife of Witfield in Boksburg had carefully locked herself inside her home while four black men were putting a new grass-roof on the entrance gate to the family driveway. At around noon the team’s foreman knocked on the door, told her to ‘come and look at something’-- and when she opened the door all four grabbed her , tied her up with wire coat-hangers, stabbed her in the neck and brutally beat her. They then pushed their fingers into her mouth and dragged her by her face and cheekbone throughout the house from room to room. They also tore at her in fury, biting her arm to shreds as she tried to defend herself. Her legs are badly bruised, she’s bleeding from the inside of one ear and she does not have vision in one eye, said the victim’s aunt, who spoke to Beeld journalist Wolfram Zweckler after her niece’s ordeal.

It was made even worse by the fact that it took police two hours to come and pick up one of the rapists – who had been chased down by the husband and tied to a pole -- awaiting police arrest. Her distraught husband added more details: “They have torn her apart. If my dog was busy biting my child I would not have done to that dog what they did to my wife.’ She was gang-raped in the bathroom and then they continued dragging her throughout the house -- when fate intervened: “Apparently one of them must have accidentially pushed the redial-button on our house-telephone. When I received the call and heard nobody speaking on the other end, I knew there was big trouble at the house. I rushed home and found the men inside my bakkie parked in front of the gate – the four men were trying to escape with it but the bakkie had died on them.” The rape-gang’s foreman jumped out – but the husband chased him, captured him around the corner, took the alleged rapist home and made a citizen’s arrest: tying him to a pole awaiting the police’s arrival. He had contacted the police at the 112 emergency number and had received a case-number -- but it took police two hours to arrive. The husband said that only after he’d arrested the man and had gone inside did he discover what horrifyingly cruel things they had done to his wife. The ambulance took his wife to Roseacres clinic in Primrose, Germiston for treatment. Boksburg-North police also arrested the other three suspects early on Friday, said police constable Cathy Meyer. The four ’men’ are expected to make their first remand appearance in Boksburg Magistrate’s court soon to set a date for their bail-application and to arrange free legal counsel. http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/c42fb2b670af49788b4248bfd29c8d66/12-02-2010-08-25/Vrou_geslaan,_gebyt,_verkrag

The tattood body of a young woman – estimated age from 25 to 33 -- was found on a beach near Noordhoek, Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape police said on Sunday. Captain Johan Rheeder said the woman, with short blond hair and several tattoos was found on the water's edge on Saturday afternoon. "She has several marks on her body as well as trauma to her head, which may have been caused by a blunt object, we will have to change the charge to murder if her post mortem reveals that she didn't drown," he said. The woman has also not been identified yet. Rheeder said that the woman was found semi naked. "She had a black top on and a white bra. Her jeans were found several meters away from her body... she has tattoos of a dragon on her back and a black rose on her neck."Anyone with information can contact the Humewood Police Station. - Sapa http://www.thestar.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20100214151506743C966036

Within 20 years of ANC-rule the sober Calvinist Free State town of Bloemfontein has become a sex-slavery mecca for international crime-syndicates, reports the local Afrikaans newspaper Volksblad on February 12 2010. After this week’s two coordinated raids by Parkway SAPS, the traffic police, the military police and the local municipal police on three suspect apartment buildings, ten young kidnapped girls were rescued from the clutches of a Nigerian international sex-slavery syndicate which had just smuggled the terrified children from the nearby country of Lesotho as well as from Johannesburg.

Picture: Police warn that many international people-smuggling syndicates are increasingly kidnapping young children from across southern Africa and even as far away as Portugal and Eastern Europe to force them into brothels in time for the sex-tourism trade -- expected to soar around the FIFA World Cup 2010 football tournaments in June-July 2010. Only this month Shamiela Clark, left, a South African woman, was jailed in Wales with her Irish husband for running a sophisticated multi-million international sex-slavery ring with 36 brothels. The Wales police said the couple had also had advanced plans to set up similar operations in South Africa soon: some of the girls in the Irish brothels turned out to be smuggled Nigerian children who were kept naked in the brothels and forced to work for up to 15 hours – too terrified because of fear of voodoo practices to even try to flee. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/feb/04/wales-prostitution-nigeria-court-carroll

The Bloemfontein apartment complex – which used to house the Free State capitol city’s working class young white families – has now become a haven for drug-dealers, mostly illegal migrants from other African countries, living on the proceeds of crime in vile living conditions with many migrant families at the total mercy of abusive landlords. Raided were the Tuishuis, Aliwal and Belmar Court apartment buildings, writes Volksblad.

During the raids, ten young abused girls, some as young as 16 years, were discovered. They had just been smuggled with promises of legal jobs from Lesotho and Johannesburg and pressed into sex-slavery this week. Police Captain Harry Nagel said the girls had pleaded with the police to help them. The children had been brought from Lesotho and Johannesburg on Wednesday- and Thursday nights and put up in brothels run by an organised group of Nigerian men, he said. Some of the girls said their parents don’t even know where they are and they want to be reunited with their families. Nagel said the girls are receiving help from the an expert organisation dealing with such problems: the Mensehandel forum. The sex-slavers themselves however had absconded and are still missing, he added. Nagel said similar raids will be carried out until the child-sex slavery rings have all been eradicated in the city. “We want to send out the message that Bloemfontein won’t serve as the base for any kind of criminal activities” he said.

During last Friday’s raids three men were also arrested in the Tuishuis-complex and charged with human slavery. Meanwhile profiles of all the girls found to be ‘working’ for these men have been drawn up – and these profiles will assist the police in establishing links to other child-sex traders. Yesterday an illigal migrant from Malawi was also arrested at Belmar Court. The municipal officials who accompanied the police have also said none of the three buildings are fit and safe for human habitation and will be locked down.

Police abuse girls in the sex-trade:

Meanwhile Volksblad has also revealed another disturbing feature of this terrifying sex-industry: while the SAPS were getting ready to carry out the raids on the buildings, Volksblad photographers also photographed two uniformed police officers emerging with a ‘sex-worker’ from one of the buildings. While these two uniformed policemen were getting into their police van they also tried to stop Volksblad from photographing them. One of the girls’ friends said the “policemen had been at the building to do business’. In an earlier report this week Volksblad had also revealed that at least a dozen members of the local constabulary force were frequenting the brothels and often brutally beat the girls if they didn’t give them sex for free. The girls had become so terrified of all police as a result that they had initially been too scared to lodge formal charges. Volksblad http://www.volksblad.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/2114/0c4df83bf2854134b23d6a0d986e9e6e/13-02-2010-05-52/Polisie_red_10_meisies_uit_sekshel

Source: Leon Engelbrecht - Friday, 12 February 2010 The United Nations has confirmed it has ordered about eight tons of ammunition from a Pretoria munitions maker, adding that all the necessary permits and end-user certificates were in order. However on January 5 the ammo company executive Richard Potgieter had been arrested by the SAPS with the ammo without a warrant when -- as instructed -- he had delivered the consignment to the SA National Defence Force for onward transmission to the UN in the Congo.

The police's Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigation (the DPCI, known as the “Hawks”) claimed that Potgieter ‘s export permits had been fraudulent and they refuse to release the ammunition despite a a High court order to release it. They demand ‘a lot more investigation regarding this ammunition and its destination…’ It’s not known why they are so suspicious of this consignment.

The New York-based Inner City Press late last week reported UN Secretary General Ban ki Moon's spokesman Martin Nesirky as saying the ammunition was for UN Security Personnel assigned to its missions in Burundi, the Cote d'Ivoire and Liberia. “The purchase was not meant for Blue Helmets (contingents), which are coming to the field with their own arms and ammunition, but for UN security personnel of three UN peacekeeping missions (BINUB, ONUCI and UINMIL),” Nesirky said in a statement. “The purchase was a standard solicitation completed with full cooperation from the Permanent Mission of the Republic of South Africa. All licenses and end user certification have been obtained, presented and approved by proper authorities.”

Potgieter was released the same day and has still not been arrested or charged with any offence. He has also stated in court papers that the permits, which were issued by the National Conventional Arms Control Committee were valid and correct. NGA last Monday obtained a North Gauteng High Court order for the release of the ammunition – however the police say they will ask for the order to be set aside. Despite having been in court and despite having time to prepare arguments and evidence, police say the court made the its decision on the basis of flawed information.

“Police are of the opinion that they acted accordingly and in keeping with their mandate when they confiscated the ammunition from the airport on January 5 and will defend this decision in court,” Hawks spokesman Musa Zondi said Friday, a month after the incident.

“In the meantime police will apply to the high court for the decision that forces us to release and transport the ammunition to the destination to be set aside. We believe the court will, with all the facts on the table, agree that there is a lot more investigation that needs to be undertaken regarding this ammunition, its destination and what appears to be fraudulent permits that were presented to officials. We are also working closely with the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] who are also a party to these proceedings by virtue that they were allegedly going to transport the said ammunition on behalf of this company.

Potgieter insists the allegations are scurrilous and the police's conduct is further irregular under the Firearms Control Act 60 of 2000 read with the Criminal Procedure Act (CPA) 51 of 1977. “The police official who seized the ammunition did not make any copies from the documents that I had in my possession, that were seized by him, nor did he make any extracts thereof. He also did not request an explanation of any of the documents and he failed to issue a written receipt for the documents and ammunition that he seized,” Potgieter insisted in an affidavit.

Th NGA CE added that contrary to the law, the police also did not have a warrant. “In terms of Section 20 of the CPA, the State may seize anything only by virtue of a search warrant issued in accordance with Section 21 of the Act.

by Debbie Schafer Friday, 12 February 2010 - “The Democratic Alliance has been reliably informed that eleven bags of narcotics seized from Johannesburg International airport that had been taken to the Pretoria Forensic Science Lab (FSL) for testing disappeared between 2007 and 2008. Apparently eleven bags of drugs were stolen from the FSL between July 2007 and March 2008, with an estimated value of R50 million.

Two of the bags of drugs stolen in March 2008 were after the Laboratory had installed CCTV cameras. The alleged thefts took place in the following timeframes:

6 bags stolen in July 2007

1 bag stolen in August 2007

2 bags stolen in October 2007

2 bags stolen in March 2008

Cases have been opened into some of the stolen drugs reported and are apparently being investigated by the Organised Crime Unit. Commissioner Du Toit, who briefed the Portfolio Committee last week, said however that there was only one FSL drug theft incident under investigation for 2007, and three for 2008. It is unclear whether any of these are the particular incidents refered to above, but even if they are, this still suggests not all of the incidents above are under investigation.

Mysterious fire… and a simple cop buys a R3-million house…

Why are the other instances not under investigation? Apparently, all of these incidents have been reported to Commissioner Ngokha and he has seemingly done little. In addition, there was a fire in the drug sample store room in January of this year, indicating that improper attention had been paid to the safe storage of exhibits.

We understand that the person who was allegedly identified by CCTV tapes to have taken bags of drugs in 2008, and who works for the lab in an administrative capacity, has since been promoted and has allegedly purchased a house valued at close to R3 million. No arrests have been made in connection with the missing drugs. We understand that the same individual has allegedly been implicated in another dubious occurrence during 2009, where bags of samples handed in for analysis allegedly had the bag numbers on them switched.

These incidents cast doubt on the integrity of the laboratories that are a fundamental aspect of crime detection in particular and on the SAPS in general. If the SAPS cannot even deal with crime within its own ranks, how can it efficiently solve crimes in society at large? I will be writing to the Divisional Commissioner to ensure that proper sample safety measures are put into place immediately and that this individual be suspended pending a full investigation.Statement issued by Debbie Schafer, MP, Democratic Alliance Deputy Shadow Minister of Police, February 10 2010 http://sareporter.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1128&Itemid=1

The once so proud, motivated, well-skilled and capable South African Police force meanwhile is also increasingly criminal and demoralised – joining robbery-gangs and helping criminals carry out crimes and targetting the citizens they had sworn to protect.

That’s another reason why they won’t be able to protect the many tens of thousands of well-heeled football tourists. This was highlighted once again by South Africa’s best investigative journalist, the relentless Susan Puren of M-Net’s Carte Blanche, who revealed in her latest documentary “Blue Lights’ that specifically lone white females are targetted by rogue police-officers who abuse their authority by arresting women on faked charges just to get them inside a police cell ‘to show them a lesson”(i.e. to humiliate and rape them.) M-Net does not advertise its clips on YouTube. A clip from the M-net report can however be seen on http://beta.mnet.co.za/carteblanche/Article.aspx?Id=3836&ShowId=1

2010-02-13also:

SOSHANGUVE. An unnamed pensioner who lived at a smallholding in Soshanguve was found murdered with her throat cut on Thursday-night by her 34-year-old granddaughter who was bringing her pension-money. Police inspector Llifi Ramatlo said the mother and daughter lived at the homestead together. The daughter said she got suspicious when she returned from fetching her mother’s pension money and found the gates locked – normally her mother would leave the gate unlocked to let her in. (!) She climbed across the gate found the backdoor left ajar and the kitchen in a shambles. Nothing was said about anything being missing. Ramatlo said there was no forced entry but the back door could ‘easily be opened from outside’ –Question: what’s wrong with this story? Why rob a very poor Soshanguve pensioner before her pension-money arrives?Sapahttp://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/7aff08a9074247108919d660f45d5b3b/12-02-2010-10-46/Beloning_vir_inligting_oor_moordenaars

2010-02-11 Norwood, Orchards, Gauteng - The body of Johannesburg schoolteacher John Scrooby - described as a charitable man by area residents -- was found stuffed down a manhole and the homeless Zimbabwean he had given shelter to, was arrested for his murder, police said. The man claims that ‘armed men had forced him to kill Scrooby’…

Police found John Scrooby's body after being called to his house in Orchards, Norwood on Wednesday morning, Captain Phillip Maganedisa said. They found a tooth and Scrooby's glasses next to the door of his house and blood on the floor. A trail of blood led police to a manhole where Scrooby's body was found. He had multiple stab wounds. "There was no sign of forced entry at the house, meaning that the victim had opened the door voluntarily for someone he knew." Further investigation led to the arrest of a Zimbabwean national who Scrooby had let stay at his house. The man allegedly told police ‘armed men had forced him to kill Scrooby’ with a blunt object around 02:00 on Wednesday. However police believed robbery was the motive for the killing, as Scrooby's money was missing. The man was arrested on a charge of murder and would appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court soon. Maganedisa described Scrooby as “a charitable man who always helped those in need.There are so many people that he has helped in the area, some he gave bread to every day, and some he gave them free accommodation. So many people are crying, not because of what he used to do for them, but because of the kind of man he was," said Maganedisa. Scrooby was a mechanical technology teacher at John Orr Technical High School in Auckland Park pictured – a badly needed skill in a country which is haemorrhagic its most motivated and skilled workers rapidlybecause of the high violent crime rates. http://www.news24.com/Content/SouthAfrica/News/1059/0dc22aba65bc42c9a5f4534e532ff438/11-02-2010-08-12/Teacher_found_dead_in_manhole

February 11 2010 - Despite her nightmare rape ordeal at her Centurion home on Monday-night, Lettie Britzz, wife of the Afrikaans gospel singer Louis, and herself a therapist, is still determined to swim the Midmar-mile this weekend. She’s been planning it for four years and won’t let the rape by one of the robbers ‘steal her life ‘s happiness,’ Lettie told Beeld newspaper in a dramatic interview. The Britzz couple were attacked inside their high-security compound in Centurion, and the attackers took Louis to the bedroom where Hettie already was in bed. He begged them ‘ in the name of Jesus’ to take anything – but to please not hurt his wife. However they paid him no heed - the black armed men forced the couple to the ground. Louis and Hettie were telling each other that ‘if this is to be the end, we will see each other in Heaven’. She’s now forced to take an aggressive course of antiretroviral medicine to prevent transfer to the HIV-virus which leads to the deadly acquired immune deficiency syndrome, AIDS. Hundreds of thousands of mostly black heterosexuals die in SA of AIDS and its co-infection Tuberculosis. She valiantly told Beeld that the drugs are ‘battle scars in a war which we cannot lose’. Louis also said that the attack was ‘psychological warfare’. She also described the rapist as ‘pathetic. He probably has never experienced the true love of a woman’ she said. Despite their brave statements however, the couple were clearly badly traumatised by the ordeal – unable to go back too their home for two nights, friends gave them refuge. Louis was planning to travel to Dubai, Australia and New-Zealand to entertain the great many tens of thousands of SA expats who work and live there. He’s now postponed the trip. http://www.nuus24.com/Content/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/1479/b68e4eb8d4c447319b99774d1ac2729e/11-02-2010-08-52/Gospelsanger_se_vrou_praat_oor_verkragtingThousands gather for Midmar Mile

Steve Loock - who runs the Facebook Support group for rape victim Lana Stevenson, 14 writes on 11 February: “Lana's rape case had been closed down by the police, apparently because they have no information on her assailants' whereabouts, and they can't find anymore clues to assist them in the case.They've given up, capitulated, and abandoned Lana, meaning she is now just part of the statistics. But we say NO WAY, our fight for justice is going on.”

“Lana" (not her real name) Stevenson, a 14-year-old South African schoolgirl, was brutally raped by armed attackers who invaded her family home in Hartbeespoort near Pretoria in March 2009. Ever since the incident people close to her have been hard at work, trying to get some justice done, but to no avail. Police are apparently refusing to assist Lana and her family, friends, and other loved ones, and no arrests had yet been made. And now the case has been dropped. The young girl was severely traumatized by the rape and also has to take anti-Aids medical treatment following her ordeal.

And in Cape Town it is reported that Deo Kaitesi, a Rwandan-born student/waiter in South Africa who plays for Bob Skinstad's Noordhoek Vikings rugby team, has laid charges of assault against local police, claiming black police officers repeatedly shocked him with stun guns on his body and burnt his genitals and shouted racist abuse at him, calling him an ‘amakrerekwere’ (foreigner) and telling him: ‘this is not your land…’

He went to lay a charge at the police station and was told to ‘voetsek’ when he insisted that he did not want a black police officer to take his statement.

Rwandan-born Deo Kaitesi, 26, who has lived in Cape Town since he was nine, had been with teammates at the Dubliner Irish Pub in Long Street on Friday night after the opening ceremony of the Cape Town Tens, a rugby festival which was held this weekend at Hamiltons Rugby Club. Kaitesi, a business administration student, had popped out for a breath of fresh air about 11pm and was accosted by two black policemen who asked him for his papers. When he tried to explain that he did not have them on him as he was in town for a rugby festival, he says the police escorted him to a deserted dark street near Parliament.

Several other policemen joined them, he says, and proceeded to shock him with cattle prods and taunt him, calling him "amakwerekwere", a derogatory name for foreigners. "They told me 'this is not your land'. I was numb. I know you don't fight the police so I put my hands up. It was all I could do."

Kaitesi, who lives in Masiphumelele with his mother Aurelia, said the police pulled his trousers down and burnt his penis with a lighter. Then they searched him, took R300 from his wallet, and left. Kaitesi decided to head home and caught a train to Fish Hoek, but said one of the policemen followed him and sprayed him with teargas at the train station. He went to the police station but was told to "voetsek" when he said he did not want a black police officer to take his statement. Once home, his mother contacted Mark Wiley, Democratic Alliance provincial assembly member, and Lindi le Roux, who owns Cafe Roux with her brother Paul in Noordhoek, where Deo is a popular waiter. They returned to the Fish Hoek police station where a charge of assault was laid. http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?newslett=1&click_id=79&art_id=vn20100207085249797C987691&set_id=1

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '